Method of making a swimming pool gutter

ABSTRACT

In a swimming pool a conduit system comprising a peripheral gutter formed from a coping which includes an upstanding wall and a bottom wall. A channel-shaped member has its free edges continuously welded to the coping to form a conduit for incoming filtered water. The channel is preferably spaced from the coping to form with it and the bottom wall a gutter for return water to the pool filter.

United States Patent Patterson et a1. 1 1 Dec. 2, 1975 15 1 METHOD OF MAKING A SWIMMING POOL 3,546,719 12/1970 Bishop 4/172.17 CUTTER 3,596,296 8/1971 Gertz 4/172.17

3,668,714 6/1972 Baker .1 4/l72.17 [75] Inventors: James A. Patterson; John F. Ogden, 705 6 1974 Spaulding 210/169 X both of Columbus, Ohio 3.815.160 6/1974 Baker 210/169 X [73] Assignee: Lifetime Metal Products, Inc.,

Columbus, Ohio Primary ExaminerFrancis S. Husar I Assistant Examiner-Mare R. Davidson [22] Flled' June 1973 Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Wood, Herron & Evans [21] Appl. N0.: 369,894

[57] ABSTRACT [52] US. Cl. 228/141; 4/172.17; 210/169 In a Swimmin 001a conduit 5 Stem Com min a 51 Int. Cl. 823K 31/02; EO4H 3/20 ri her 1 i @Ormed from in ingclugeg 1581 Field 01 Search ..29/471.1,475;210/169; p a g Y p g 4/172 172 l8. 228/14] an upstanding wall and a bottom wall. A channelshaped member has its free edges continuously welded [56] References Cited to the copmg to form a condult for 1ncom1ng filtered water. The channel 15 preferably spaced from the cop- UNITED STATES PATENTS ing to form with it and the bottom wall a gutter for re- 2.932,397 4/1960 Ogden 210/169 turn water to the pool filter. 3.011.178 12/1961 Stone 4/l72.18 X 3,363,767 1/1968 Ellis 210/169 4 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures X5 V t 1 91 12 9 /fl fl/Z METHOD OF MAKTNG A SWIMMING POOL GUTTER This invention relates to a swimming pool conduit system, and more particularly the invention is directed to an improvement in the conduit system of the Ogden US. Pat. No. 2,932,397.

Prior to the Ogden patent, the plumbing for swimming pools had usually been buried in the soil surrounding the swimming pool, that is, the conduits for filtered water were located well below ground and included a main conduit extending around the perimeter of the pool and spaced outlet conduits connected from the main conduit to the wall of the swimming pool and usually spaced down several feet from the top of the swimming pool. Further, gutters usually were provided with drains spaced every twenty feet or so, the drains having conduits connecting them for the flow of water from the gutter back to the filter.

The Ogden invention substantially eliminated all of the underground plumbing by providing a gutter extending around the perimeter of the pool, one of the walls of the gutter (preferably the inner wall of the gutter) being formed as a filtered or fresh water conduit, the wall having outlets spaced around the pool to direct water from the conduit downwardly into the pool. This system which permits the plumbing to be exposed for ease of installation and repair has enjoyed widespread acceptance.

In the present practice of making and installing the system, a gutter coping including an upstanding wall and a horizontal bottom wall have been factory formed and installed at the site of the pool. A conduit has also been factory formed from a channel to which a plate has been welded along two continuous welds to close the channel and form the conduit. That conduit, as the inner wall of the gutter, is welded along a continuous line at the site of the pool to the previously formed and installed coping to complete the installation of the gutter. The coping and conduit are usually formed in short sections, as, for example, feet sections, and are transversely welded at the site in order to form the continuous gutter for pools which are usually at least 25 meters in length and 42 feet wide. After installation, the conduit is filled with liquid and under high pressure to see whether any leaks have been created through the welding process. Any leaks appearing are immediately repaired.

While the foregoing installation methods and structures have been used in hundreds of pools and have been considered to be a vast improvement over practices prior to the Ogden patent, they nevertheless have given rise to some problems which the present invention seeks to eliminate.

First, while it has been advantageous to prefabricate the conduit under factory conditions to provide as much assurance as possible that the conduit will be leak-tight, the welding process over a long stretch of the conduit causes the conduit to warp and twist. This has given rise to the need to build an arch or camber along the length of the conduit so that when it is welded at the site to the coping, the heat of the welding of the conduit to the coping will tend to straighten the conduit out. Because the amount of this arch cannot be completely estimated, only the most skillful, experienced welder can make a straight, true installation at the site of the pool.

The structure necessarily results in concealed inaccessible welds. As stated above, adjacent short sections are transversely welded together and the composite conduit is then welded to the coping. At each place where a transverse weld overlies the coping to which the conduit is attached, that section of transverse weld is inaccessible. Should a leak develop in that transverse weld, it would be difficult to detect in the first place and when detected, it would be difficult to repair because of its inaccessibility.

An objective of the present invention has been to provide a new method of forming a conduit system of the type disclosed in the Ogden patent. More specifically, in accordance with the present invention, a coping and an open channel or comparable elongated member are formed and the channel is welded along its free edges to the coping, the coping completing the enclosure of the channel so as to form a closed conduit for the distribution of water to the pool. The welding of the channel to the coping may be performed at the factory or at the pool site.

The invention not only eliminates the disadvantages of the practices described above, but additionally introduces considerable economies into the swimming pool construction.

Since there are no overlapping surfaces between a coping and a conduit with the method and structure of the present invention, the invention admits of at least some saving in metal.

Second, the prior practices required three continuous welds, two to form the conduit and a third to mount the conduit onto the coping. The present invention requires only two continuous welds, those being the two welds by which the channel is mounted on the coping with the simultaneous closing of the channel to form the conduit.

Third, by eliminating the problems of prewelding the conduit, through which stresses are introduced which tend to cause the conduit to warp, particularly after those stresses are locally relieved by the introduction of heat in the final installation weld process, the resultant structure tends to be a much straighter, neater installation.

Fourth, and this is related to the third, the welding process is much easier and'requires less in the way of skills in the welder, for the welder does not have to accommodate the tendency of the conduit to warp and twist during the final on site installation.

Fifth, there are no welds concealed by the overlapping surfaces of the preformed conduit and the coping to which it is mounted.

Sixth, in the prior practice the plate which completes the formation of the conduit is applied as the bottom wall of the conduit. When the conduit is mounted in place overlying a concrete pool wall, for example, at least one of the two continuous welds, the outer one, becomes concealed by the concrete or other underlying material. Should a leak develop along that weld line, after installation, it would be difficult to locate and difficult to repair. In the present invention, by way of contrast, both longitudinal welds are exposed.

When the fabrication of channel to coping is performed at the site, the welder does not experience the problems arising out of the stresses occurring due to the factory welding to form the conduit, as has been mentioned previously. The present invention, however, admits of the fabrication of the channel to coping at the factory without the problems attending the present practices. The coping flange which extends laterally of the conduit to form the gutter and the like contributes strength to the assembly which resists distortion. Further, since the conduit and coping are completely welded at the site, there is no requirement at the site to make a continuous longitudinal weld and, hence, there is no introduction of substantial heat which tends to locally relieve the stresses of the previous welds, thereby causing metals to distort. Thus, whether the fabrication is at the factory or at the site, the present invention provides substantial advantages over prior practices.

All of these features greatly reduce the overall cost of the job, including certain hidden costs such as the total time to fabricate and the living and travel expenses of the welders and fabricators who make the installation.

The several features of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a swimming pool of the type to which the invention is applied;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along lines 2-2 of FIG. 1 to illustrate the prior practice of gutter construction;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along lines 22 of FIG. 1 illustrating the invention; and

FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 are diagrammatic views illustrating alternative forms of the invention.

A typical swimming pool to which the invention is applied is illustrated at 10 and includes the pool cavity 11 defined by side walls 12. At the top of the side walls is the conduit system 13 which includes the gutter construction of the present invention. The conduit system 13 is connected to a filter 14 which receives contaminated water from the pool, filters it and discharges filtered water into the pool.

The conduit system includes an inner peripheral conduit 15 forming the front wall of an open gutter 16 which has a back wall 17. The gutter is a gravity feed system which is in communication with a return conduit l8 emptying into the filter 14. Fresh water from the filter 14 is fed into a conduit 19 which is connected to the inner peripheral conduit 15 to direct fresh water into the pool. A series of outlets 20 are formed in the conduit 15 and direct water downwardly into the pool.

The existing practice of forming the gutter including the conduit 15 is illustrated in FIG. 2. At the factory, an elongated coping is formed, the coping to be welded at 26 (at the site) to angle members 27. The angle members are welded to ,U-shaped anchor brackets 28 buried in the concrete wall structure 29 and spaced around the perimeter of the pool. The coping includes an upstanding wall 32 integral with a bottom wall 33 which, with the conduit 15, forms the gutter 16. The upstanding wall includes a vertical section 34, a wave quelling section 35 and a channel-shaped section 36 behind the coping which is filled with concrete when the concrete walkway is poured around the perimeter of the pool. A vertical flange 37 is integral with the bottom wall 33 and provides a surface to which a conduit 15 is mounted.

The conduit 15 is also factory formed as a channel 40 having plate 41 welded across its open end to close the conduit. The plate 41 is secured to the channel by two continuous welds 42 and 43. Each conduit is brought to the site as an elongated section and is transversely welded around its perimeter as at 44 to an adjacent conduit section to form a continuous conduit around the entire perimeter of the pool and into the filter. Similarly, the coping sections are transversely welded together as at 45. At the pool corners, of course, the conduit is mitered and welded to form a leak-tight joint there. When the sections of conduit are joined together to form the complete conduit around the pool, it is pressure tested to be sure that the weldings are leaktight. It is then clamped to the coping 25 preparatory to welding. Prior to welding and clamping, the conduit is warped and arched due to the prefabricating process of making the welds 42, 43. Through the skill of the welder and the heat generated by the process of welding the conduit to the coping, the conduit tends to straighten out to make a presentable looking pool when the job is completed. It does not straighten out uniformly, however, since the heat of the final continuous weld is applied locally. The quality of the job is, due to the distortion in the conduit, largely dependent upon the skill of the welder.

The conduit is secured to the coping by a continuous weld 46 on the inside of the gutter. It can be seen that a portion'47 of the transverse weld 44 will lie concealed against the vertical flange 37 of the gutter. Further, it can be seen that at least the weld 43 and probably the weld 42 which join plate 41 to channel 40 are concealed against the concrete or other material over which the gutter is mounted. When the conduit is finally welded in place, it is then pressure tested, and if any of the concealed welds leak, the location of the leak is extremely difficult to determine, and when it is determined, it is even more difficult to repair because of its inaccessibility.

The invention, as illustrated in FIG. 3, eliminates the disadvantages of present practices as described above. The present invention utilizes a coping 50 which is similar to the coping 25 of FIG. 2. Coping 50 has a wider bottom wall 51 which terminates in an angulated flange 52.

In one method of the present invention, the coping sections are transversely welded together at the site as at 55 and a conduit enclosing member formed as a channel 56 is mounted on the bottom wall to complete the forming of the conduit. As contrasted to prior practices, channel-shaped member 56 is factory formed and left open until it is mounted on the bottom wall 51 of the coping 50. Since it remains unwelded, it has not been subjected to any localized heating which would cause it to be warped when brought to the site of the pool. To complete the gutter, sections of the channel 56 are transversely welded as at 57 to form an elongated channel extending around the perimeter of the pool and into the filter. That elongated channel is placed upon the bottom wall 51 of the coping and initially tack-welded in place. Thereafter, a continuous weld 59 is formed to join one free edge of the channel to angulated flange 52 so that the channel and a portion of the bottom wall 51 combine to form a leak-tight conduit. It can be seen that this structure does not leave any concealed transverse welds. Nor are there concealed welds arising from the factory closing of the conduit by means of a separate plate. Hence, all welds are exposed so that if any leaks develop during the pressure testing after installation, they are easily discernible and easily repaired.

Alternatively, at the factory the channels 56 may be tack-welded along their free edges to the coping section 50, as shown in FIG. 3. In this condition, the sections are brought to the site, joined together by transverse welding. Thereafter, the continuous welds 58 and 59 are made after the complete assembly is tied down to the angle members, such as angle members 27 in the field.

Still another alternative would be to make the continuous welds 58 and 59 at the factory and rely on the rigidity provided by that portion of the coping which projects laterally of the conduit to prevent distortion of the sections before they are brought to the site.

The concept of the present invention is applicable to all types of pools wherein the conduit system of the Ogden U.S. Pat. No. 2,932,397 is employed, including concrete pools as well as steel walled pools. The concept of the invention also admits of a variety of configurations, two of which are illustrated at FIGS. 4 and 5.

As shown in FIG. 4, a coping 60 has a bottom wall 61 which includes an L-shaped conduit-enclosing section 62. The water-carrying conduit indicated at 63 is formed by welding another L-shaped section 64 along continuous welds 65 and 66 to the bottom wall 61. A dummy channel 67 can be tack-welded at 68 and 69 or continuously welded at those locations to form the inner wall of the gutter.

In still another form of the invention shown in FIG. 5, a coping section 70 has a bottom wall 71 which includes an L-shaped portion 72. An inverted J-shaped conduit section 73 is continuously welded at 74 and 75 to the bottom wall to form a water-carrying conduit 76.

Still another form of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 6. There, a coping section 80 has a bottom wall 81 and a complete front wall 82 terminating in a short, horizontal section 83, forming a portion of the top wall of the conduit. The conduit is enclosed by an elongated member 84 which is welded at 85 to the bottom wall and at 86 to the horizontal section 83. There is an advantage in welding at 86 to form the top wall of the conduit that does not obtain for any of the other forms of the invention. In the other forms of the invention, the weld must be ground and polished, the polishing being an expensive operation, particularly if done in the field. The top wall of the conduit, however, is not required to be polished, but rather is required to be sandblasted to provide a frictional surface to minimize slipping as the swimmer stands on it when entering or leaving the pool. Therefore, by locating the weld 86 in the top wall, it is required only to be ground smooth with no polishing required. The only finishing operation is the sandblasting which is a required operation anyway, and thus the expense associated with the adoption of the present invention in the form of FIG. 6 is minimized.

The embodiments of FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 illustrate that the invention admits of a wide variety of configurations while employing the fundamental concept of the invention which is the formation of the conduit by welding the free edges of a channel, regardless of the configuration of the channel, to the coping.

We claim: 1. The method of forming a gutter and conduit for supplying filtered water under pressure to a swimming pool comprising the steps of:

forming an elongated metallic coping having in cross section and serially connected a vertical outside wall, a bottom wall, a vertical inside wall and a horizontal, outwardly directed flange portion presenting a free edge, welding the free edges of an elongated member to said bottom wall at a location spaced from one of said vertical walls and to said free edge of said flange portion, respectively, to form a leak-tight conduit with accessible longitudinal welds. 2. The method of forming a recirculating system in a swimming pool comprising a tank having side and end walls, and a filter system associated with said tank, said method comprising the steps of:

bending sheet metal to form a coping which includes a gutter back wall and bottom wall,

forming an elongated conduit-enclosing member having inner and outer longitudinal edges,

welding said two longitudinal edges of said conduitenclosing member to said sheet metal along continuous longitudinal welds to form a liquid-tight conduit between the sheet metal and the elongated member, the outer of said longitudinal edges being spaced from said back wall so that said back wall, bottom wall and conduit-enclosing member form a return gutter,

transversely welding a plurality of said sheet metal and said conduit-enclosing members in abutting relation to provide a continuous conduit and gutter around the perimeter of said tank,

connecting said gutter to the inlet side of said filter,

connecting said conduit to the discharge side of said filter for the introduction of filtered water under pressure into said pool,

pressure testing said conduit while the welds forming it are exposed for repair, and

forming inlet openings in said conduit for directing water into said tank,

whereby substantially the entire welds forming said conduit are exposed for repair after said tank is constructed.

3. The method as in claim 2 in which said coping is installed at the pool site and thereafter said conduitenclosing member is welded to said coping.

4. The method as in claim 2 in which said coping and said conduit-enclosing members are welded together away from the pool site. 

1. The method of forming a gutter and conduit for supplying filtered water under pressure to a swimming pool comprising the steps of: forming an elongated metallic coping having in cross section and serially connected a vertical outside wall, a bottom wall, a vertical inside wall and a horizontal, outwardly directed flange portion presenting a free edge, welding the free edges of an elongated member to said bottom wall at a location spaced from one of said vertical walls and to said free edge of said flange portion, respectively, to form a leak-tight conduit with accessible longitudinal welds.
 2. The method of forming a recirculating system in a swimming pool comprising a tank having side and end walls, and a filter system associated with said tank, said method comprising the steps of: bending sheet metal to form a coping which includes a gutter back wall and bottom wall, forming an elongated conduit-enclosing member having inner and outer longitudinal edges, welding said two longitudinal edges of said conduit-enclosing member to said sheet metal along continuous longitudinal welds to form a liquid-tight conduit between the sheet metal and the elongated member, the outer of said longitudinal edges being spaced from said back wall so that said back wall, bottom wall and conduit-enclosing member form a return gutter, transversely welding a plurality of said sheet metal and said conduit-enclosing members in abutting relation to provide a continuous conduit and gutter around the perimeter of said tank, connecting said gutter to the inlet side of said filter, connecting said conduit to the discharge side of said filter for the introduction of filtered water under pressure into said pool, pressure testing said conduit while the welds forming it are exposed for repair, and forming inlet openings in said conduit for directing water into said tank, whereby substantially the entire welds forming saId conduit are exposed for repair after said tank is constructed.
 3. The method as in claim 2 in which said coping is installed at the pool site and thereafter said conduit-enclosing member is welded to said coping.
 4. The method as in claim 2 in which said coping and said conduit-enclosing members are welded together away from the pool site. 